John 11:38–53

THE SEVENTH SIGN: RAISING LAZARUS FROM THE DEAD

³⁸Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it.^{y 39}“Remove the stone,” Jesus said.

Martha, the dead man’s sister, told him, “Lord, there is already a stench because he has been dead four days.”

⁴⁰Jesus said to her, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed you would see the glory^z of God?”^aa

⁴¹So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised his eyes and said, “Father, I thank^ab you that you heard me.^{ac 42}I know that you always hear me, but because of the crowd standing here I said this, so that they may believe you sent^ad me.” ⁴³After he said this, he shouted with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” ⁴⁴The dead man came out bound hand and foot with linen strips and with his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unwrap him and let him go.”

THE PLOT TO KILL JESUS

⁴⁵Therefore, many of the Jews who came to Mary and saw what he did believed in him.^{ae 46}But some of them went to the Pharisees^af and told them what Jesus had done.

⁴⁷So the chief priests and the Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin^ag and were saying, “What are we going to do since this man is doing many signs? ⁴⁸If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans^a will come and take away both our place and our nation.”

⁴⁹One of them, Caiaphas,^b who was high priest^c that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all! ⁵⁰You’re not considering that it is to your^B advantage that one man should die for the people rather than the whole nation perish.”^{d 51}He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was going to die^e for the nation, ⁵²and not for the nation only, but also to unite the scattered children^f of God. ⁵³So from that day on they plotted to kill him.^g